Difference
by RchHghr
Summary: Amarant lightens Freya's mood one night.


Amarant lightens Freya's mood one night.

Dedicated to EdwardWongHauPepiluTivriskyIV

Enjoy!

0000

Lost. We're lost. Zidane is just too proud to admit it to this rag team of different species. But everyone is thinking it. We're lost and it's pitch dark out, so what do we do? We set up camp in the area of a forest where we don't know any of the identities of the creatures that inhabit it at night. Great. Everyone will be sleeping and something will rush from the trees and carry off the princess.

I'd pay Gil to see that. I think everyone else would too. I'm the only one who has the guts to think it.

Right now mostly everyone sleeps. On the ground. No one cares that we aren't making the time we need to make. I don't care what these people do, but I can think of a hundred places I'd rather sleep, and pubs I could be sitting in.

But I'm here and I don't even know why half the time.

I think half of us don't know either. Even the "warrior" woman who doesn't sleep most of the time. Freya Crescent. She pokes at the fire with a stick. I wonder whose eyes she's envisioning poking out. It has to be somebody's eyes because she's a warrior and that means she has a ton of enemies.

From my perch in a tree I jump down and slump over to her and sit a few to her left. She looks at me with tired eyes. I guess she has the right to be tired sometimes. We all do, but she and one other are strong enough to hide it; most of the time.

Her eyes go back to the fire and she continues poking. She acts like I'm not sitting here; that she's in her own world. I nudge her.

"Hm?" she questions. She doesn't even look at me.

"What's wrong?" I question. "If you're tired, just go to sleep. I'll be up for a while waiting for the beast to carry the princess away."

I get the twinge of a smile from her, but then it fades it. She doesn't even look at me. Something is on her mind. It could be the same thing I am thinking about: we're lost. The map doesn't even chart this territory, and everyone just went to sleep without care of the wild beasts. Sometimes its best to sleep in trees.

"What's wrong?" I try again.

"I'm just tired," she answers to me, in a tired voice. I believe her, but that's not it. Something else is weighing down on her. I don't care what it is; I don't want her being the heavy weight to weigh us down.

"Fatigued from the fighting?" I smirk, setting her up to play on her nerves. "Or, are you getting too old and losing your touch?"

"I can take you on anytime, or any day. I can take you down right now without making a sound." Subconsciously she looks to the site of the two sleeping brats: Eiko and Vivi. They both sleep in a line, but both their heads are touching; his hat and her horns.

"So you would be up to challenge right now? Right here by this fire?" I bait her, and even so she shows determination. She's serious. She will fight me. That's how we met; we started a fight. I give her credit. She probably would've won, but for one reason. My track record. If I am obtained by authority they will have no problem locking me in a dark cage with rats and mold.

She nods. She's not taking the bait seriously. If she did she would've gotten up already, or went for her weapon, or even her armor which she's set aside with her belongings.

It brings a cynical chuckle out of me. Or is it sarcastic?

"You know you're something, huh rat?"

She turns her head slowly in my direction. "What is that? My wit? Because I can outsmart you any day."

Now we're getting somewhere.

"No." I say simply. I even add a small shoulder shrug to prove my point. I can be just as lame and poignant as she is being.

"My strength to outmatch you in any fight?" She tries again, but this time it's cocky or confident. I seem to get those two confused sometimes because what I see, other's object. It goes as well to what others do and I see.

I pretend to think about it. "No." I shake my head.

"My skills to outwit you, and strength to overcome you in a fight; any fight. That much be it." There's even a smile in that one and I smirk.

I take a stick off the ground and poke her left upper arm. "You're weird. It's the weird offset that you favor your left hand in obtaining your weapon, and utensils to eat."

She chuckles. Then she starts laughing. She disturbs Albert Steiner, but he just scratches at his hair. He doesn't wake.

"How does that make me weird?" she questions pointedly. She takes the large stick out of my hand and throws it on the fire. She pokes me with the tip of hers which burns like hell. I just keep my composure, though I snatch the stick and toss it on the fire as well.

"Who else do you know that obtains the strength in their left hand instead of their right?" I challenge.

She has to think about it, and all the while a smile keeps itself on her lips.

"Who's the witty one now?" I throw my arms up and angle out of the way before she can shove me into the little campfire.

"At least my hair doesn't take on a life of its own. There must be a few families in there of micro creatures."

She can insult me, or try to bring back her pride and win, but I've lightened her mood. I can handle anything she throws at me. She can finally get some sleep with lighter shoulders.

I hope back up into the tree and let one leg dangle off. I can watch over her until I fall asleep, because I know she'll fall asleep first.

OOOO

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed.


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